Investigating the Effects of Variables of Gender, Locality, Computer Accessibility, and Computer Familiarity on Iranian High school Students’ Attitudes towards CALL

1. Investigating the Effects of Variables of Gender,
Locality, Computer Accessibility, and Computer
Familiarity on Iranian High school Students’ Attitudes
towards CALL
Masoud Azizi Abarghoui
M.A/TEFL/Islamic Azad University
,Shahreza Branch

2. Introduction:
With the extraordinary growth of computer technology, much greater attention has
been paid to educational technologies in teaching and learning. Thus, many countries
around the world have integrated computer into their educational programs, and
tried to take advantage of the contribution of such an experiment in their training
course. It is also one of the most attractive fields in the current teaching and learning
trend and it is generally believed that language learning could not be excluded from
this. Thus, the present study is primarily concerned with investigating the effects of
variables of gender, locality, computer accessibility, and computer familiarity on
Iranian high school students’ attitudes towards CALL.
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3. Questions:
This research aimed to address the following research questions:
1.Is there any significant difference in Iranian high school students’ attitudes towards
the use of CALL based on variables of gender and environment?
2.Is there any significant relationship between the attitudes of Iranian high school
students and variables of computer accessibility and familiarity?
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4. Purposeand Scope of the Study:
This study is different from prior studies related to CALL in that it was not concerned
with how CALL affects student achievement;instead, the researcher investigated
attitudes of learners toward computers in general and, more specifically, toward the
use of computers when learning specific language skills.
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5. Literaturereview:
Xiong (2008) believe that CALL is in accordance with students’ needs as it provides
them with useful information. According to his findings, CALL should be used more
frequently in different language classes.
According to Zhao and Liu (2011) CALL is remarkable because students gain more
confidence in learning language via computer and also they feel that the computer
helps them improve their language skills, through developing
their way of thinking.
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6. Methodology:
This study was a replication of a study conducted by Bulut and Abuseileek (2006) that
investigated students' attitudes atKing Saud University toward computers and the use
of computers as learning tools in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom.
According to Gall, Borg, and Gall (1996), researchers should replicate studies to
ensure the validity and reliability of prior findings. Replication studies enhance the
generalizability of previous findings and provide confirmatory data concerning the
behaviors, subjects, and setting to which the findings are applicable.
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Setting and participants:
This study has been conducted in the IT laboratories ,equipped with some appropriate
hardware and software each holding 20 PCs that are connected with the Internet, in more than
12 separate boys' and girls' high schools in different counties, districts, and villages of Yazd,
Kerman, and Fars provinces. The students who participated in this study included 45 boys and
61 girls studying in first, second, third, and fourth ( pre-university) classes in those above-
mentioned separate high schools.

8. :
Materials
Instructional Software DVD:
The students were taught by means of a series of DVDs involving supplementary educational
software named Khat-e-Sefid (The white Line) in a CALL environment for about one semester. This
supplementary educationalsoftware has been designed according to thestandardized published
book of Islamic Republic of Iran Ministry of Education. These series have also been verified,
approved and recommended to everyhigh school English teachersall around the country by
undersecretary of information and educational communicationof the aforementioned ministry at
13 March, 2011.
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9. Instrument:
The questionnaire with Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.82 (Appendix A) was the second phase
of the study. At the end of the semester, Students were asked to fill out an attitude
questionnaire right after they finished the course. They were also told about the aims
of the study and were asked to give their opinions and ideas about the use of CALL for
training and learning English in our high schools. The reason for utilizing a
questionnaire for the study was togather data from the whole population, the high
school students who were described before.
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10. Results:
The results of analyzing responses to the questionnaire revealedseveral notable findings on the
attitudes of Iranian high school students toward using CALL with regard to the researchquestions
The differencebetweenmales and females regarding their attitude towards CALL was found to be
significant; however,the differencein Iranian high school students' attitudes toward CALL based
on environment was revealed not to be significant.
Moreover,the relationship between the attitudes of Iranian high school students and computer
accessibilitywas proved not to be significant, while, the correlationbetween the attitude of
Iranian high school students and theircomputer familiaritywas displayed as being significant and
negativeindicating that the higher the students' familiaritylevel,the lower their general attitude.
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11. Discussion:
When brought together all the findings revealed that there is a significant
difference between females and males regarding their attitude towards CALL,
which is in accordance with some previous studies like those of Chiu (2003) and
Tunçok (2010). Regarding the second research question, it was the reverse
comparing with the study by Tunçok (2010) which revealed that students who
have more access to computers are intrinsically more motivated in terms of
computer-assisted language learning.

12. Implicationsandsuggestions:
1. Curriculum designers should work hard with teachers. They should be that the
curriculum for students has sufficient references to the use of CALL in learning
English.
2. Administrators of the ministry of education should understand the students'
need for CALL in English classes. Once they reach this understanding, they should
be willing to provide enough lab facilities for CALL during classes and students’ free
time so they have adequate time to practice using a computer.

13. 3. The administrators are advised to purchase the latest versions of CALL
software that does not conflict with the domestic culture, an opinion
shared also by Alkahtani (2001) and Al-Shammari (2007). Moreover,
their policy should be strict enough so as not to hire teachers who have
no background in CALL.

14. Thank you
for your time
and consideration